New Chick-fil-A Opening Near Las Vegas Strip

Chick-fil-A will open its 15th Las Vegas location on Thursday, Aug. 25. Chick-fil-A Flamingo & Paradise will be located a block east of the Las Vegas Strip at 4165 Paradise Road, on the former site of a P.F. Chang’s across from the Silver Sevens Hotel & Casino.

Chick-fil-A is the third-most profitable fast-food chain in the nation. With only 2,704 U.S. locations, it generated $16.6 billion in revenue in 2021, impressive since leader McDonald’s required 13,438 locations to generate $23.2 billion in the same year.

The Georgia-based chicken chain opened its first Sin City restaurant in 2017. Its first (and still only) location on the Las Vegas Strip proper opened inside the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood in 2020.

According to a company press release, the latest Chick-fil-A will employ 100 full- and part-time team members. It will also participate in the company’s “Shared Table Program,” an initiative that redirects surplus food from the restaurant to local soup kitchens, shelters, food banks, and nonprofits in need.

The eatery will be open for drive-thru 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and for dine-in and carry-out 6:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. (All Chick-fil-As are closed on Sundays.)

How Chick-fil-A Hatched

The chicken chain began as the Dwarf Grill (now the Dwarf House.) It was opened in 1946 by the late S. Truett Cathy in a suburb of Atlanta.

In 1961, Cathy found a pressure-fryer that could make a chicken sandwich in the same time required to fry a hamburger. Following this discovery, he registered the name Chick-fil-A, Inc. and licensed the sandwich to 50 restaurants, including Waffle House.

In 1967, Cathy opened the first standalone Chick-fil-A in the food court of Atlanta’s Greenbriar Mall. At this point, he withdrew all sandwich licenses from other restaurants and began building his own empire.

Embroiled Chicken

Many of Chick-fil-A’s values are influenced by the Southern Baptist Christian religious beliefs of the Cathy family. For example, those beliefs are why all Chick-fil-A restaurants are closed for business on Sundays.

In a 2012 radio interview, Chick-fil-A owner Dan Cathy, son of S. Truett Cathy, spoke about his opinion of marriage equality.

I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’ ” Cathy said. “I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”

Two years later, Cathy stated his regret over having made the comments, though he never stated that his beliefs had changed.

The LGBTQ Task Force continues to support a boycott of Chick-fil-A for what its website asserts.

The millions of dollars the fast-food chain has donated to anti-LGBT and hate groups over the years, and Dan Cathy’s hostile remarks against marriage equality,” their website states.

In 2019, Chick-fil-A announced that it had stopped contributing to anti-LGBTQ organizations. However, according to a 2021 report by Esquire magazine, Cathy continues to do so privately.